PRINCETON, Maine — The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township will receive a $250,000 federal grant to build a maple syrup processing facility in Jackman.
The grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission was announced by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King on Tuesday.
The tribe was awarded a Rural Business Enterprise grant of $99,500 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July. Those funds are to be used to help the tribe launch Passamaquoddy Maple Syrup Ventures, a business to produce maple syrup. The grant will finance branding and marketing efforts and also the conversion of a small building at the Pleasant Point reservation to a bottling plant.
The tribe also has received other grant funds, $1.5 million over three years, from the Administration for Native Americans to purchase equipment to collect and process maple syrup.
The tribe began collecting maple syrup this year and had 3,000 taps in place in the spring on land it owns in the Jackman area. The raw maple syrup was processed into concentrate form and supplied to a business in the area that produces maple syrup. The tribe’s efforts yielded 8,000 gallons of concentrate.
In the coming year, the tribe plans to expand its operations and have 20,000 taps in place next spring and be ready to produce a finished product under its own brand and label. Syrup would be shipped in stainless steel barrels from Jackman to the bottling plant at Pleasant Point.
The tribe expects to complete a processing facility in Jackman in the fall, Joseph Socobasin, governor of the tribe at Indian Township, said earlier.
“These grants represent significant investments in these communities,” Collins and King said in their joint statement. “These valuable infrastructure and employment programs will improve quality of life for residents and help create and sustain jobs.”